Heretofore, in order to mass produce cassettes having magnetic tape wound therein, for example, audio analog compact cassettes (hereinafter referred to as the "ACC"), there has been a method that can directly wind the magnetic tape into the cassette having a leader tape applied in advance, and another method in which the magnetic tape and the leader tape are wound on the hub or reel before it is put into the cassette.
A tape winding apparatus for mass production of cassettes in the former method was disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Sho 51-89404. In this method, the cassette is held in place, and the leader tape is drawn out of the cassette and cut in half. One end of the cut leader tape is stuck to one end of the supplied magnetic tape. In turn, a winding shaft is fitted in with the hub of the cassette. The winding shaft is rotate to wind the magnetic tape onto the hub. When a predetermined length of magnetic tape is wound, the winding shaft is stopped from rotating. The magnetic tape is cut. The cut end of the magnetic tape is stuck to the other cut end of the leader tape. The magnetic tape and leader tape stuck together left out of the cassette is wound into the cassette by the winding shaft before the completed cassette is discharged. The process described above is repeated to produce numbers of cassettes.
There has been proposed a digital compact cassette (hereinafter referred to as the "DCC") along with recent development of the digital electronics technology. It is made in a shape similar to the ACC. However, the hub of the DCC is made to have the winding shaft inserted only in a single side direction, while that of the ACC can have the winding shaft inserted in any of the both directions. Also, the winding shaft for the ACC is shaped at its end for ease of insertion into the hub, but cannot be put into the hub of the DCC. The reason is that while for the ACC the winding shaft can be put through the cassette body from its thin end to a thick fitting portion, but for the DCC it cannot be put through to reach the fitting position. Further, for the DCC, holes for insertion of the winding shaft are closed by a sliding lid to protect the magnetic tape wound in the DCC. To revolve the hub in the DCC, the lid provided on one side has to be opened before the winding shaft is fitted in the hub. Further more, the magnetic tape is to be wound on one of the hubs in the cassette, but the ACC and the DCC are different in hub size to wind magnetic tape. For these reasons, conventional winding apparatus used for production of an ACC could not wind tape a DCC irrespective of their similar shapes.
In view of the foregoing, one object of the present invention is to provide a winding apparatus capable of producing either an ACC or a DCC in a single unit.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved winding assembly for production of both an ACC or DCC using of the conventional ACC winding apparatus.